Across
African SandJourneys of a Witch-Doctor's
Son-in-LawPhil Deutschle |
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"Impossible!
You will die."—These are the final words of doom spoken to Phil Deutschle
as he embarks on a journey of truly epic proportions: to cross Africa’s
forbidding Kalahari Desert—the World’s Largest Expanse of Sand—alone, and
by bicycle. It’s a feat deemed to be impossible… if not suicidal.
The coming 3000 miles of sand proves a test of Deutschle’s physical stamina
and mental fortitude in a life-and-death challenge seldom experienced in
our modern world. In ACROSS AFRICAN SAND: Journeys of a Witch-Doctor’s
Son-in-Law, we see Deutschle doggedly dragging his bicycle through
sand in temperatures exceeding 120°F, hunting with Bushmen using poison-tipped
arrows, and facing down a charge of enraged elephants. For moisture
he chews on water-bearing plants, and at one point, his water reserves
are so depleted that he survives by licking up the dew that has collected
on his bicycle frame.

Woven into this gripping narrative of extreme adventure are colorful
episodes chronicling Deutschle’s five years’ living in a grass-roofed hut
in Mapoka, a remote Kalanga-tribe village in eastern Botswana. Deutschle’s
immersion into traditional African society is shockingly total—learning
obscure African languages that have no written resources, dancing barefoot
at tribal rain ceremonies, consulting village healers for medical treatment,
and ultimately falling in-love with the daughter of the local witch-doctor.

Deutschle’s narrative—ranging from chilling descriptions of being
stalked by lions to a moving account of a village boy’s typical day at
school—brings Africa to life with a rare blend of brutal candor and deep
empathy. ACROSS AFRICAN SAND is richly illustrated with
the author’s own photographs, and is sure to take its place among the classics
of travel literature.